Super Sunday Parade

          The crawfish boil is only about five and a half weeks away. So we figured it would be a good idea to highlight some of the other events in the Greater New Orleans area that out of town guests might enjoy. While looking for other events, we stumbled across a big one that you will definitely want to check out.

A Krewe on Parade 

          Sunday March 15 (the day after the boil) is Super Sunday in New Orleans. What is Super Sunday? It is only one of few times during the year that you can see Mardi Gras Indians on parade. The Indians are perhaps the least famous (at least to people not from New Orleans) part of Mardi Gras celebrations. They are the African American community’s equivalent of the famous Krewes (and largely white). Krewes are organized along the lines of royalty with kings, queens, dukes, knights, and captains. Membership is severely limited. The krewes are generally named after Roman or Greek mythological figures. Each has their own parade featuring specially designed floats. This list will give you a sense of the different krewes. Their parades begin in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras Indians via HBO's Treme

          Since African-Americans were largely excluded from these white activities, they developed their own ways to celebrate Mardi Gras. African Americans named their krewes for imaginary Indian tribes. This was to honor the Indians efforts to help African Americans escape enslavement in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Mardi Gras Indians began to appear in the late 1800s. The first such group was the Creole Wild West from the Seventh Ward. As a way to visualize the bond between the two groups, the African Americans dressed as up as Indians. Their Mardi Gras celebrations featured music, dance, hand sewn costumes, and masks. Mardi Gras Indians organized themselves along neighborhood lines. Older members taught younger ones their traditions, creating legacies within families. Throughout the early 20^th century, the Indians remained very much on the margins. They stayed mostly within the black neighborhoods of the city. Their members were often poor and working class. They were carpenters and laborers by day and Mardi Gras Indians by night.

A Mardi Gras Indian Flag Boy 

Instead of floats, the Indians feature beautifully elaborate masks and costumes. Covered in sequins, beads, and feathers, rhinestones, jewels, plumes, satin, and velvet these costumes require a tremendous amount of detail work that takes months. The suits weigh somewhere between 80 and 300 pounds. Each tribe includes a Spy Boy, who locates rival tribes. A Flag Boy carries the tribe’s flag. A Wild Man clears a path through the crowd for the Big Chief. The Big Chief is the leader of the tribe. He is generally the oldest and most skilled at sewing and creating costumes. He also must be able to sing and chant the traditional Mardi Gras Indian songs. He can never wear the same costume twice. The big chief spends his time between each year’s Mardi Gras crafting his new costume. On Mardi Gras and Super Sunday, the Indians parade through the city. In the early days, Mardi Gras Indians would settle their scores with violence. Other time community leaders channeled this anger into competitions between tribes over who had the prettiest chief. Now when tribes encounter each other in the streets, they generally engage in a mock-battle. This involves a song or chant and call for respect from one chief. The other chief responds with a similar song, chant, and call for respect. They each try to assert their superiority as the prettiest or best big chief. The two men dance and chant before acknowledging each other and continuing along their way. Since Youtube won't let me embed the video, follow this link to watch a clip from the HBO show Treme featuring Mardi Gras Indians. 

This is definitely a tradition worth checking out. For more information on the details of the parade, go here. We’ll be back next week with some other recommendations for things to do in New Orleans.